Hello and Oliver

So… Hello! How are you? How’ve you been?Yes, I’ve been MIA. But I’m back! What can I tell ya, life gets in the way…

Recap since winter: training & life went well. I was pretty diligent in sticking to my program despite kids, work, house reno, travel, social life, etc. Most weeks I’d hit about 85-90% of the volume I’d been assigned, which is good for me.

Swimming came along, slowly slowly slowly. I’ll never be Michael Phelps, let’s face it. But I am comfortable in the water and more importantly, coming out of the water. I’m even considering Alcatraz, something I SWORE I’d never try. Jump off a boat? Into the FREEZING cold ocean? Not a chance… or maybe?

I was a bit worried about my riding, since I’d had less time on the bike than in previous years (2 kids in the winter will do that to a girl…) I did get some rollers and I do think it made a difference in my riding. It was a chilly spring here so there were VERY few rides without tights, jackets, etc. Some very nice rides up to the Callaghan made for some great spring riding. Check it out, http://www.callaghancountry.com/company/olympics.php

My running has been steady. I completed the Vancouver first 1/2 marathon in February (!) and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t die. Val kept me pretty steady after that, keeping my running to a very manageable level.Most importantly I didn’t have any physical problems at all in preparation for Oliver!

So… Oliver!I was apprehensive about how well my training had prepared me for this race. I knew I was feeling good but my head was a little bit all over the place and I was having a little bit of a hard time focusing on race prep in the week leading up to the event. It took me forever to get my race plan together, eventually completing it at about 4pm on Saturday. Yay for cramming!

Saturday morning was SUPER windy, made for a really fun warm up swim!! Check it out.

So race day… up at 5. Had some breaky and coffee and then BAM! Where, oh, where does the time go when it’s race day? 2.5 hours are GONE!7:30AM start with my 1100 fellow racers. I was happy with my swim (though I am quite certain that if you were to GPS me, I could prove that I swam probably 2.5K instead of 2K 😉Out of the water, trotting along to the transition far FAR away. Found my bike and off I went. Lap 1 was easy peasy, lap 2 the wind picked up! Really enjoyed the guy on the side of the course who kept cheering for “ya Rocky girl!” My computer crapped out somewhere along the way, so I had no real idea how fast (or not, as the case may be) I was going.Off the bike, started to “run” out of transition. I won’t lie. It wasn’t pretty. I was getting passed like I was being shot at from behind! High-Five Oakley boys, nice to see you on the course, hope you were enjoying those Coors light.I wasn’t too concerned, I just kept trotting along, eventually passing most of those jokers who passed me.Kept it together to eventually finish in 5:20:55. Personal best by 9 minutes! Yay!As always, a very well run race, put on by some tremendous folks. Here are some photos, courtesy Lena Martin and, well, me.

Oliver Peoples. Can you tell who’s happy about the chop and who’s not?

That’s me, chasing Fred. Sigh… time to retire the silver shorts, I do believe.

Smiling. Must be the last lap. Nice tan, by the way. Or not.

So now what?Gooooood question.Had a nice week off, headed to Masters tomorrow morning for a little butt kicking. Not sure what race I’m going to do next, ANY SUGGESTIONS?

In the meantime, I will start to get ready for my “summer job”… http://www.tdf-tours.com/Gonna go chase Lance around France, I’m sure he won’t mind.